Rings and things and fine array
by Polkat
Summary: It is James Potter's 18th Birthday and Remus and Sirius have thrown him a party with a hefty amount of presents thrown in for good measure. R&S, J&L ie, liberal amounts of fluff


Well, it's my birthday today and due to certain creative licences that mean I can do whatever I want, I've decided to make it James Potter's birthday too. I started this story months ago and finally finished it today figuring it should be done before the day is out. It's my birthday present to me * hugs mini Kuzcotopia and sighs* I'm _so _happy. Eighteen today for me and Jamie.

Lots of R/S fluff and lots of J/L fluff too, just for good measure. I would have put it under James and Lily but I figured R/S shippers are going to be more accepting of J/L than the J/L shippers would be of R/S and I decided I could live without the _"You are disgoustin, Remus and Sirius are strait!"_ reviews to brighten my birthday. 

Enjoy.

Oh and review. *beams* P.S Hogsmeade is now correctly spelt, thankyou Trinity Day. I am suitably embaressed.

* * *

_

"We will have rings and things and fine array  
And kiss me, Kate, we will be married o'Sunday."  
The Taming of the Shrew

_

*

James Potter opened his eyes, gazed blearily at the clock on his bedside table, registered it was eight o'clock and a Sunday and shut his eyes again. 

__

Eight o'clock. 

Ugh. Times like this shouldn't be allowed to exist. 

Another minute managed to tick slowly past before he remembered it was his birthday. His eighteenth birthday. Today. Now. Grinning stupidly he sat up and bounded over to Sirius' bed, "Padfoot wake up you lazy git!"and yanked open the curtains. 

The bed was empty.

Half heartedly James gazed across at Remus' bed which was also bereft of its owner. That would explain it then. His best friends were probably down in the common room doing obscene things to each other that James' really didn't want to know about. Still with Peter home for the Christmas holidays they would just have to stop and honour his birthday. 

Keeping his eyes closed, Prongs walked slowly down the stairs of Gryffindor tower. His hand pressed tightly over his eyes, he stopped an inch in front of where he hoped the door was and reached out a hand. It was shut. He removed the hand and yelled "It's James!" A muffled laugh reached him. "I don't want to be mentally scarred on my birthday so can you stop…whatever your doing. Please. I'm coming in now."

He pushed open the door and stepped inside to be greeted by a large picture of himself that winked and grinned in what it obviously believed was a charming and debonair manner. An orchestra struck up Happy Birthday and the ceiling began raining red and gold confetti. Remus was standing on a step ladder and grinned at him from where he was adjusting the babuls around the Christmas tree so they spelt _Happy 18th Birthday Prongs! _

"It's your birthday _today_?" He let out a loud fake gasp of surprise. "Oh no. Siri, we forgot Jamie's birthday! What are we going to do?" 

Sirius finished hanging another picture of James and turned round and smiled broadly. "Well I guess it's too late to get any more decorations, these will have to do."

James turned slowly on his heel, unable to think of anything sensible to say. 

"'Thank you Sirius,'" Sirius suggested helpfully and then, when James had still not answered he continued the imaginary conversation. "Oh that's no problem mate; your gratitude is enough for me."

"I notice I don't get thanked in your version of events," Remus pointed out with amusement. 

Sirius sighed. "Alright, alright. 'Thank you Remus.' 'Oh it's fine; it was all Sirius' idea really.'" 

"How long have you too been preparing this?" their friend asked peering at a picture of himself at his fifth birthday as Remus snorted and returned to the tree. 

"Weeks," Sirius replied airily. 

James moved onto the next picture underneath a large gold number 6. "Where did you get all these?"

"Your mum… seemed all too happy to oblige. Photos were my idea," he finished proudly. A snow ball hit him the face and as he spluttered and pushed the warm snow from his eyes Remus dismounted from the step ladder and wiped his hands on his dressing gown. "_Our_ idea," he corrected. 

Sirius stuck his tongue out and turned his back on the werewolf. "Scary lady your mum," he continued to James, ignoring his lover who had wandered off to do something magical to the fire. "Grinned at me when she handed these over… I bet she's still got pictures of me in my punk phase." 

"Awh Siri, I really liked your pink hair," Remus teased, laughing. 

"No, my favourite was the red eyeliner," James added, laughing harder. "And the spikes, you forgot the spikes."

"How could I forget the spikes?" Remus stopped pretending not to giggle like a lunatic, abandoned the fire and flopped onto the sofa.

"Laugh it up, wolf boy," Sirius growled amiably and flung another snowball. Remus' wand flickered lazily and it skidded about a foot from his face and hurled itself back at Sirius.

"Cheater!" Padfoot gasped through another mouthful of snow.

"The indoor snowballs were mine," Remus explained still beaming. 

"The fanfare was mine."

"The fire… well it doesn't work but it was my idea."

"The confetti was mine," Sirius added loudly, not to be outdone.

"Does that stop by the way?" James inquired happily as more red and gold paper built up around his feet. "It'll be hard to breath soon."

Sirius looked down at his own ankles, found they weren't there any more and waved his wand at the ceiling, cancelling the downpour. "Should've probably worked on that one a bit first," he admitted sheepishly. "Seemed a good idea at the time."

"So what else have we got?" James asked, hoping the elusive word presents might be mentioned any minute.

Remus started laughing again. "You'd better show him. He'll find out when he leaves for breakfast anyway."

James raised his eyebrows quizzically and marched over to the door. 

"No, Prongs, er…" The door swung open and as it did it began to sing.

__

"James Potter is the Best!  
In a class above the rest!  
Those Slytherins he does detest!  
And he never forgets his vest!"  


"What is that?" James' gasped. He made to shut the door but Remus shook his head. 

"No wait, it gets better. I'm about to come in."

__

"Oh James is really cool,  
He goes to Hogwarts School  
He loves to break the rule-s

Padfoot, what are you doing?

Singing.

Are you sure it's not just some special kind of torture perfected only by yourself and Bob Dylan?

Who's that?

You don't want to know. Can I see your lyrics?

Sure. Wrote them myself.

It doesn't show."

Sirius slammed it shut again. "It was a work in progress," he insisted defensively. Neither of his friends answered him. "Oh shut up!" Another snowball found its way into his fingers and this time Remus was laughing too hard to block it successfully. Sirius grinned cheerfully. "Time for presents then."

*

"Ok, and that one's from Peter."

The parcel was large, brightly coloured and about the same size and shape as a packet of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. James ripped open the paper and discovered, to his amusement, that this was because, once again, Peter had managed to reach new levels of inventive present buying and that he was now the proud owner of another packet of Every Flavour Beans, a new quill and a note from Peter saying: _Sorry about the present, couldn't think of anything. Again. I'll find something at home. Enjoy your birthday. Wormtail._

James folded it into a paper plane and let it soar over towards Sirius who was leaning against the sofa opposite the tree. The animagus unfolded it, scanned the message, sighed and handed it on to Remus who was lounging on the sofa. "I swear that boy gets worse every year," Sirius commented cheerfully. "I think I got chocolate frogs for my seventeenth."

"No, they were from me," Remus corrected lazily. "Got you something else though."

James looked rather sickened and reached for another present to his friend's enormous amusement. "A _scarf_, Jamie," Sirius assured him, still smiling. "_Honestly_, you were there... Do you think we're just helpless slaves of lust?"

"Don't let him answer that one," Remus grinned, leaning down to kiss his boyfriend. "Oh!" he broke away to Sirius' annoyed _"Remus" _and sat up keenly. "That one's from me!" 

James examined it. "Doesn't feel like a scarf… or chocolate," he decided thoughtfully. "Feels… square-ish."

"Incredible deduction," Sirius told him. "They'll be queuing up to get you when you apply to be an auror." James stuck his tongue out. 

"Open it," Remus insisted eagerly, kicking Sirius who was possibly about to raise another objection. James removed the paper with the least care possible and discovered that he had been right. It was indeed square-ish. Glass and square-ish in fact and despite turning it around in his hands numerous times, it remained a glass cube.

"Er… thank you Remus. It's just what I've always wanted." James laughed, turned the cube over again. "So… what does it do?"

"That's it," Remus remarked, sounding rather hurt. "It's just a cube of glass… I thought you'd like it."

James gave him a very hard look until his composure broke again and Remus started laughing once more. "Alright so it does do something. Put your hand on the top-"

"Which is the top?" James interrupted. "They're all the same."

"It doesn't matter," Remus told him impatiently. "Put your hand on top and say, _clearly _November the sixteenth."

James did as instructed. "November the sixteenth," he chanted, feeling a bit of a fool but trusting Remus. The cube filled suddenly with colour as if he had spilt orange juice into a glass of water. He could make out stands, a pitch and several green and red shapes. 

"It's Gryffindor's last match against Slytherin," Remus explained as the game came quickly into focus. "What you do is you take this out with you, hold your hand over it and say '_perscribo.'" _He beamed._ "_Then it'll remember the game for you so you can watch it at a later date."

"Wow- hey look that's me, getting walloped by Rodgers. I look really brave, carrying on like that." Sirius and Remus exchanged looks. "I hope Lily saw-"

"She did," a female voice remarked from behind him. "I could hardly miss you yelling _'Lily, look! I stayed on my broom!'_ now could I?" Lily finished descending the stairs and smiled at the boys gathered round the Christmas tree. "Happy Birthday James." She seated herself next James and kissed him as Remus and Sirius made noises of mock disgust. 

Lily looked up curiously. "Ignore them," James insisted with a laugh. "Ok, more presents guys."

"Oooh, mine next," Sirius exclaimed, almost bouncing up and down with excitement. He removed a small box from his pocket placed it on the arm of the sofa and tapped it with his wand. _"Wingardium leviosa,"_ he declared and, with a flourish, the box rose gently into the air. 

"This looks a bit small to be the usual bag of dung bombs," James protested as it knocked gently into his fingers. 

"I got you those too," Sirius reassured him. "And lots of other stuff too that I'm sure your lovely girlfriend would probably disapprove of, especially seeing as you're now supposed to be responsible and reliable and lots of other words ending in _'ible' _that mean you're not allowed to maraud any more."

"I'm just not allowed to get caught," James reminded him, grinning, in what he hoped was a pacifying way, at Lily who was trying to decide if he was joking or not.

"I think I'm supposed to give this to my wife," Sirius explained as James opened it. "But he doesn't really wear jewellery… joking love, joking," he said quickly as Remus aimed another snowball at him. Remus looked mollified and sat up, looping his legs around Sirius affectionately before jamming a snowball down the back of his t shirt. "You better be as there's no way I'm coming anywhere near you socks, let alone washing them." 

"Sirius, this is your ring," James exclaimed, dragging Sirius' attention back to him. 

"No, it's not." He held up a hand upon which his own ring gleamed. "That's _your_ ring. Mine never had antlers surrounding the opal… I got it changed down in Hogsmeade. Didn't think you'd want to wear the Black crest."

"Antlers?" Lily asked.

"…Er, private joke." James slid it on to his middle finger. "It fits," he pointed out, surprised.

"Course it fits," Sirius grunted. "Magic, isn't it?"

"Sirius this is probably really valuable…" A horrible thought struck him. "I don't have to marry you now do I?"

"Only if you want to," his friend grinned, displaying his teeth wolfishly. 

"Don't do it Prongs," Remus warned. "You'll be stuck doing all the housework forever and you know it." 

"He better not," Lily added, tightening her grip on the hand that wasn't wearing the ring. "Not when I've only just started to like him."

"I don't know Lil," James added thoughtfully. "He is _very_ rich; I could live in comfort forever if I married Sirius. I think I'd need some serious convincing otherwise-"

She grinned back and kissed him, long and passionately. Watching them Remus hissed, "I think you've lost Siri," but the other seemed unperturbed. "Just wait till it's my go."

Lily broke away. "Well?" she demanded. 

James was grinning foolishly. "Alright Paddy, what've you got?" he asked, still wearing his dazed expression.

Sirius started to crawl forward, smirking slightly but Remus tightened his grasp around his boyfriend. "Oh no you don't."

Padfoot fell back with a look of mock resignation on his face. "I'm sorry James, though my heart belongs to you I'm afraid I am not free to follow it." He sighed dramatically and looked up at Remus who rolled his eyes. "Guess it's just you and me kiddo. Remember when you're washing my socks in ten years time that you chose this life." He clambered out of Remus grasp and onto the sofa.

"Get off!" Remus protested, laughing as Sirius proceeded to alternately kiss and tickle him. "Sirius! _Sirius_… no, get off." Sirius' lips caught his own and Remus stopped complaining for a while. James gave a loud, fake cough and they moved apart, Remus looking decidedly guilty; Sirius looking decidedly amused.

"Next present's from my parents-"

*

"Jim… a word."

James picked himself out of the wrapping paper fort that had grown up around him and followed Sirius, curiously over to the other side of the common room. His best friend was looking almost… _serious_. "I've got something else to give you," Sirius informed him. 

"Yer, the dung bombs… I know."

"No. Well, yes, those too. But also this," he removed another box and presented it to James. This one was white and covered in velvet. "Picked it up at the same time as I got yours. Cost a fortune but I figured my parents could afford it."

The box snapped open, another ring nestling the box. A white opal this time, the silver setting depicting-

"This is for Lily," James said, slowly.

"Girls like that don't come along every day," Sirius insisted, now looking the most serious James had seen him since he had let Snape into the Whomping Willow. "She's crazy about you and you… well you've loved her since-"

"Our second day," James finished quietly. "She was sitting next to Remus in charms, showing him how to make his feather fly. He looked so happy when he'd gotten it right and then she smiled…" They both looked back towards the Christmas tree where Lily was laughing with a group of Gryffindor girls who had arrived, tousled and clad in dressing gowns, as Remus enchanted a group of ornaments so that they waltzed among the confetti. Remus got up and tugged open the door so that _James Potter is the best_ wafted over to them before returning to the girls. 

"You guys belong together," Sirius pointed out. "And I want to be the one to make sure things stay that way. Before the year is out I want you to have given her that, alright?"

James nodded solemnly and tucked the ring into his back pocket. "Thanks Siri."

They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment then James laughed and pulled his best friend into a bear hug. 

"James, get the hell off my boyfriend!" Remus yelled, trying to work his way around the tree and the giggling girls. "Oops, sorry Portia." He stepped over the girl's leg and tripped over something else that was possibly his present to James and into Lily's lap. "Sorry Lily."

"It's alright, I was about to do the same thing." She looked across at the two boys in the corner and then down at the one at her feet. "Do you want to ditch them both?" she suggested wickedly.

"An excellent idea," Remus grinned back. "Sirius Black if you don't get over here in about ten seconds I will reconsider living with you forever and will instead be eloping with Miss Evans before the end of this month."

Sirius let out a gasp of fake horror and pelted across the room, pulling Remus rather roughly to his feet so that the werewolf was hurled him. "You're not getting away that easily," he growled. 

"I should hope not," Remus grinned into Sirius' kiss.

James, still standing over the other side of the room, shook his head and smiled, watching his two best friends wrapped in each other. 

"I notice you didn't run to my rescue when you heard I was engaged to Remus," Lily remarked softly in his ear. James jumped and turned sheepishly on his heel. "Well, I knew Sirius would never let Remus go through with it," he pointed out, brushing her hair away from her face and leaning in to kiss her again. "Besides," he murmured, "you didn't ask me to." 

"Mmm… well, from now on, if you hear I'm engaged to anyone else please can you remove me from said entanglement, ok?" Lily looped her arms around his neck and looked up at him; James, thinking of the ring in his pocket, smiled quietly. "You have my promise."

"Good…" she kissed him again and whispered, "Happy Birthday James."


End file.
